The metal forming and stamping industries commonly use material handling equipment to process the coil steel through the press. This equipment typically consists of coil reel handlers, threading equipment, feed equipment, and straighteners. Such equipment will handle, unwind, feed and straighten unprocessed coil metal(s) to flatten the material adequately that can then be presented to presses for forming or stamping processes.
Industry known practices utilize common equipment to straighten the presented material utilizing a series of rollers of various diameters, spacing, and width that are sized to match press capacities and metal properties. The aligned rollers, commonly referred to as upper and lower banks, which are located on both the sides of the presented material will apply adequate forces to yield the material greater than the modules of the presented material. The rollers and banks will continue to apply forces to the metal during the feeding phase into the press. As a result, the forces from the rollers (banks) must be relaxed to allow the adjacent press to align and position the straightened material into the press dies allowing proper processing during the press cycle. This is commonly referenced to “pilot release” in the press and stamping industries.
The upper and lower banks of rollers must be actuated or moved out of the way to relax the imposed forces during process. Currently, the process to relax the material in the straightener is commonly achieved utilizing linkages, levers, and cylinders (hydraulic or pneumatic) actuated by motors or cylinders to articulate or reposition the banks at the required interval or timing. The current technologies have limitations related to motion that limits the strokes per minutes (cycle time) and internal mechanical stresses associated with referenced mechanical motions.